


The Time Between

by ABakersTrilogyHasFourBooks



Category: Ghostbusters (2016), Ghostbusters - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, How Patty became a Ghostbuster, Of course Holtzmann is involved, Random background head canons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 05:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7744726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ABakersTrilogyHasFourBooks/pseuds/ABakersTrilogyHasFourBooks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Me, a ghost hunter. Exactly how I pictured my life would turn out.” She chuckles, thanks Holtzmann for dinner, and opens the door. </p><p> “Hey, call me if you see anything else. Thanks for helping me almost capture a ghost. And for having dinner with me.” Holtzmann scribbles her number into Patty’s palm with a marker and smiles.</p><p>“Oh, I will. You’ll get him next time.” Patty heads down the stairs and into the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Time Between

**Author's Note:**

> So after seeing the movie three times, I felt that Patty joining the team as almost a complete stranger was kind of abrupt. In the scene where she brings the hearse, she seems to know Holtzmann pretty well for having (apparently) only met her twice. So in my head, they met several other times before she officially joined the team.

Holtzmann surveys the scene with mixed feelings. On the one hand, she is excited beyond belief. Her technology, something Abby dreamed up and she put into practice, had shown that the potential to capture a ghost was absolutely within reach. On the other hand, her latest prototype had been completely destroyed by the train, the ghost had gotten away and Erin had nearly died. She and Abby each grab one of Erin’s arms and pull her off of the stairs so she can catch her breath. Holtzmann descends onto the tracks with a sigh to assess the damage to her machines and determine whether any of it can be saved.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Patty shouts, looking alarmed. “That’s not safe!”

“Eh, I’ll be fine. I’m going to grab some of these parts and see if I can use them when I rebuild.” Holtzmann leans over, scooping up scraps of twisted metal in her arms. Patty inches her way to the bottom step. “Here, hold these,” Holtz says, thrusting an armload of steel to Patty.

“Can’t you like, start from scratch? I’m no scientist but this stuff is pretty banged up.” 

“This is perfectly good steel! I can absolutely melt it down into something new. No use leaving it for some scavenger.” Holtz holds up the remains of the computer system and assesses it. “This might be beyond repair but I might be able to use the circuitry for something else.” She discards a portion of the wreckage and continues digging through the scraps for salvageable parts, picking out pieces here and there for several minutes. “I think...I think that’s probably all I can use. Do you mind helping me with this stuff? The cart is beyond repair.” She climbs the steps to the platform, followed by Patty, where Erin and Abby are stripping off outer layers of slime-soaked clothing. Holtzmann wolf whistles. 

“Gimme a break, Holtzmann. I have no idea how you keep avoiding the slime. Here.” Abby rolls her eyes and flicks her wrist at Holtzmann, sending a stream of slime that hits Holtz across the chest. Holtzmann grins, swiping a finger across the goo and looking at it carefully. 

“Don’t you dare taste it! We have no idea what that stuff is made of.” Holtzmann sticks out her tongue at Abby but wipes her hand on her jacket. “C’mon Erin, let’s get cleaned up.” Abby wraps a slimy arm around Erin and steers her toward the stairs. “We’ll see you at headquarters later, Holtz.” 

“It might be tomorrow for me. It’s going to take a while to get this stuff washed off.” Erin says with a grimace and a wave.

“You have fun with that,” Holtzmann smiles and waggles her fingers at her friends. She turns to Patty, who still has her arms full of parts. “Oh, sorry. Hmmm...I wonder what’s the best way to get that stuff back to the lab.”

“Well you could try the bus. I don’t think a cabbie’s gonna stop for you.”

“You’re probably right about that. I mean I walked it here but that was when it had wheels.”

“I get off in fifteen minutes. I could give you a hand. If it weren’t for me, it’d all be in one piece still.” Patty says, walking back to her booth. 

“I will take you up on that. Thanks.” says Holtzmann, following Patty into her booth and setting her pile of refuse on the floor behind Patty’s desk. “And hey, if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have almost caught a ghost! I know what I need to do now. It’s going to be great.”

 

A short while later, Patty and Holtzmann are walking down 5th Avenue, arms laden with scrap metal and a dented circuit board. They get some weird looks and the people in the streets give them a wide berth, which makes the journey quicker than usual.

“So how did you all get started hunting ghosts?” Patty asks.

“Well, Erin and Abby go way back. They’ve been friends since high school. Erin had...an experience with a ghost, apparently. Abby was the only one who believed her. They wrote a book about it together and then at some point, Erin ditched Abby to go teach at Columbia. Abby and I met when I was working on my doctorate. We reconnected about five years ago. I’ve been running experiments with her and designing stuff with the intention of capturing a ghost. Anyway, Erin found out a couple months ago that Abby’s been selling their book on Amazon and she was PISSED. She came back to confront her on it. Then we saw an actual ghost and now she’s totally in. Might be because we all lost our jobs. Didn’t have a lot of options.”

“Wow. That’s rough. But it seems like you’re really onto something. I mean, you almost had that ghost! That shit was crazy.”

“Wasn’t it? We were so close. I’ve got a couple of ideas I want to try out. Definitely need to make the whole system more portable.”

“You’re right about that baby. New York City ain’t exactly the place for wheels. Throw that shit in a purse or a backpack and you’ll be good to go.” Patty replies. 

Holtzmann stops and Patty nearly runs into the back of her. Her eyes light up and a gigantic grin stretches across her face, dimples creasing her cheeks. “A backpack! You’re a genius, Patty! That’s EXACTLY what we need!” 

“Well it certainly would make lugging that shit around easier. Might want to make one that ain’t flammable though.” Holtzmann nods at her and begins spewing plans a mile a minute. Patty listens and interjects here and there and before they know it, they’ve arrived at the corner where the Chinese food joint is located. 

“Oh man that place has the best egg rolls. If I worked above it, I’d weigh 300lbs, easy,” Patty says as Holtz unlocks the door to their quarters.

“Are you hungry? Can I buy you dinner? Y’know, as a thank you? For dragging my stuff across town, and for gifting me with the world’s greatest idea in ghost catching design?” Holtzmann smiles brightly at her and throws the scraps on her lab table, wiping her hands on her pants. Patty follows suit, dumping her armload of metal as well. She nods. 

“Yeah, I’ll let you buy me dinner. I didn’t have time for lunch today.” Patty strolls around the room, taking in the sights and sounds of the science lab while Holtz turns to runs downstairs and place an order. “Hey,” she calls as she reaches the bottom step. “Don’t touch anything!” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it, baby!” Patty laughs and situates herself in the abandoned booth to wait.

 

~~~~

Over spring rolls and sweet and sour chicken, the women talk about how they wound up in their respective fields. Patty had been happily teaching history at the local high school for several years. She switched to working nights at the MTA a few years back so she could take care of her mother-in-law, who was suffering from dementia, during the day. When she passed away, Patty’s husband, an administrator in the school district, left her for a former student teacher with whom he’d been having an affair for years. Patty was humiliated and decided to continue working at the MTA rather than attempting to find another position within the school district. She liked the MTA all right but she missed teaching dearly. She wasn’t sure how to re-enter the school system with the shame of what her husband had done hanging over her head. 

Holtzmann could relate to the feeling of humiliation that Patty had experienced. After she finished her doctorate, she went to work for the military, moving to Arizona. Initially, her job was to design portable shelters that soldiers could use in a variety of terrain and even share with civilians in desperate places. She felt good about this until she was asked to design chemical weapons that she was pretty certain broke some international statutes. She knew the radiation from these types of weapons would cause harm to people within a several mile radius of a detonation and she could not in good conscience be part of that. When she spoke out, the government turned it around on her saying that she was attempting to design weapons of mass destruction. A journalist caught wind of the fabricated story and ran with it. Her reputation was tarnished and no one wanted to hire her. She found herself unemployed and unsure of what to do next when she received a call from Abby, who had stayed in New York and was trying to put her theories on the paranormal into practice. Abby offered her a place to stay and helped her get back on her feet. Holtz was grateful to move across the country where no one had heard of her and began working alongside Abby at the Kenneth P Higgins Institute of Science. 

All in all, they enjoy each other’s company. It usually takes her a while to warm up to new people, but not Patty. Holtzmann feels that Patty is a person who understands what it is like to attempt to navigate an awful situation outside of your control. They had each gotten back on their feet after being knocked down time and time again and Patty understands how coming through that sort of situation changes a person forever. There is something about Patty that makes her extremely easy to talk to. She is an excellent listener. Holtz gets the feeling that she truly hears every word she says rather than focusing on what she is planning to say next. She appreciates that. She often feels that people are waiting for her to stop talking so they can have their turn.

“Hey so...am I safe to keep working? Is that ghost going to be back?” Patty asks Holtzmann, who has finished eating and is now sorting through her pile of scrap metal. 

“Honestly, I don’t know. He definitely didn’t seem like a benevolent spirit. I’d start looking for something else if I were you.” Holtz replies and Patty sighs and stands up to leave, tossing her take out container in a trash can near the door. 

“Well, that’s just great. I’m not sure where to go next.” 

“Why not back to teaching? You’ve got a brilliant mind for history. Or, y’know, you could always join the ghost hunters club,” Holtzmann says with a grin, meeting Patty at the door. 

Patty smirks at that. “Me, a ghost hunter. Exactly how I pictured my life would turn out.” She chuckles, thanks Holtzmann for dinner, and opens the door. 

“Hey, call me if you see anything else. Thanks for helping me almost capture a ghost. And for having dinner with me.” Holtzmann scribbles her number into Patty’s palm with a marker and smiles.

“Oh, I will. You’ll get him next time.” Patty heads down the stairs and into the night. 

~~~~

As the days go by, Patty feels less and less comfortable being so close to the tunnels. Especially at night. She doesn’t like being alone down there with the threat of a ghost and the weird New Yorkers that gather when it grows dark. 

One day, she’s filling out paperwork and she sees something moving out of the corner of her eye. When she looks up, she sees those familiar red eyes looming in the shadows. She leaves her desk mid-shift and barrels up the stairs to get the phone reception needed in order to make a call. 

“H’lo?” She recognizes Jillian’s husky voice.

“Hey, uh, Dr. Holtzmann?” Patty begins. “This is Patty Tolan, you know, from the subway? I think our, uh, little friend is back.”

“Oh really?” Holtz sounds excited. “So you saw the ghost again? When?”

“Just now. Pretty sure I did. Not the whole thing, but I swear I saw those creepy ass red eyes lurking near the tracks. I can’t deal with this shit!”

“Yeah, that guy definitely did not seem to be friendly. Want me to come take a closer look? I don’t have the new containment equipment ready yet, but I can take some readings with a few new toys I’ve developed.”

“If you don’t mind, I’d appreciate that. I’ve been trying to find a different position but so far, nothin. I think I’m stuck here for a while.”

“I’ll be there in a few.”

Holtzmann keeps Patty company for the last two hours of her shift, taking readings and measurements with the new devices she’d been cooking up in the lab. The tunnel area near Patty’s booth was red-hot with parakinetic activity. Holtz scribbles down notes as she goes, continually talking to herself and occasionally asking Patty questions.

“Have you seen any more strange behavior down here?” Holtz asks.

“Well, it’s the subway at night. So yes. This is the first time I saw those creepy eyes since you all were here. I thought maybe I saw that weird guy again, but he disappeared into the crowd before I could get a good look at his face. Wonder what that dude’s up to.” Patty locks the cash register, slides her papers into a stack, and moves to lock the door to her booth.

“That’s the end of my shift. I’m gettin the hell out of here. You’re welcome to stay as long as you need. Javier will be along for his shift in a minute. Dude’s always late though and I am not waiting on him tonight. Commuters can use the kiosk to buy tickets til he gets here.”

Holtz straightens up and scribbles one last sentence into her notepad. “I think I’m done here. Not much else I can do unless I’m back at the lab...or the ghost decides to show his face again. Walk you out?” She gestures to the nearby staircase.

“Thanks,” Patty replies, leading the way. “I’m going to see if I can switch to daytime shifts for a while until this gets sorted out. I did not like the looks of that dude.”

“I don’t think that’s a bad idea.” 

“Do you think I’m in danger?”

“It’s hard to say,” Holtz begins as they make their way up the stairs. “I wish I could say no with 100% confidence. But I’ve got to be honest with you, I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“I appreciate that. I guess I could see if my uncle needs any help at his funeral home.” They make it to the top of the stairs. The street is pretty dark. Holtz doesn't feel like going home yet. 

“I’m sure you’d be excellent with the dead. But what do you think about joining the Conductors of the Metaphysical Examination? We could use someone...normal-er on the team. Someone with your knowledge of the city.” Holtz smiles at Patty, who doesn’t look horrified like she had imagined. 

“Talk to me, baby. At this point, I’m open to anything.” And with that, Jillian Holtzmann and Patty Tolan head into the nearest bar, where plans are made.

**Author's Note:**

> Holtzmann totally played a part in getting Patty on the team. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!


End file.
